Dear All
I am surprised to see that there are still a lot of postings going on about blade problems, I think that for the record it is time for me to lay out the facts as we see them.
Firstly, I would like to say that we do not actually see a blade problem. Before Christmas there were a lot of postings here about faulty Cameo blades, I asked everybody with a problem to send their blades back to us for inspection. We only received less than 20 back, which out of thousands sold at that time was a minimal percentage. As a matter of goodwill, we shipped out replacement blades to all regardless of if they were faulty or not, meanwhile, our engineers inspected all of the returns under a microscope, we only found 5 that were faulty, this is a minuscule quantity, and less than 0.02% of the units sold.
The other 15 units were either chipped or blunted. if there is a problem with the Cameo cutters it is that it is too flexible, and owners can extend the blade too far, this is the biggest cause for chipping the blade which was the main damage seen by our engineers. If the blade extends more than the thickness of the card then it is likely to get damaged. Please remember that setting 1 on the Cameo cutter is equivalent to the blue cap, setting 2 is equivalent to the yellow cap and setting 3 is equivalent to the pink cap. Any settings higher than this must be used with caution and only were the thickness of the card warrants it.
The next problem that I am reading is about dust collecting in the tip of the cutter, this is normal, and so long as the blade rotates smoothly then it should not affect the cut. When cutting card with the cutter, it is designed to work with a scissor action, to perform this it is important that the nose cone runs on the surface of the card while the blade cuts. By making the hole larger, you lose this scissor effect and the quality of the cut deteriorates. We have tried literally hundreds of different style holders, and the existing design works best. The current size of the hole is the optimal size to give the best quality cut.
The down side of this is that the hole is more liable to fill with dust, but to be honest, unless the dust is really compacted or has chips of card in there it will not affect the quality of the cut. We do not suggest that anybody puts the blade in their mouths and sucks out the debris, but before using the Cameo, just wind in the blade give a quick blow on the tip then set the blade depth again, this wont stop the dust getting in, but just stops it getting too compacted.
There is also confusion about the availability of cutters. The original cutter with coloured tips is still in stock for those who require or prefer it. We have discontinued the replacement pins because there is not sufficient demand for them. I have seen postings asking if we could just keep a few in stock for those who require them, this is not really possible, we have to manufacture the pins in their millions, this will take a long time to get rid of while we are only selling about 10 per week. Unfortunately it was not commercially viable.
So in conclusion, please use your Cameo ratchet cutter, it works well, it is a far less expensive option, but treat it with care, it is a delicate tool. You would not throw your expensive kitchen knife into the breadboard or drop it on a stone floor, look after it.
I hope this clears up any of the misconceptions that are floating around. Meanwhile, if anybody does have any problems, please do not hesitate our support at
support@graphtecgb.co.uk. I must reiterate, if a blade is found to be faulty, we will continue to replace it free of charge, however if the blade is chipped or blunt through incorrect operation unfortunately we will not be able to be as generous.
Phil